


It's the climb ( To the the second floor bedroom)

by DigitalMeowMix



Category: Rapunzel (Fairy Tale)
Genre: Adopted Children, Adoption, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Child Neglect, F/M, Gen, Goth Girl Rapunzel, Major Character Injury, Male Character of Color, Mental Health Issues, Mother-Daughter Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-11
Updated: 2015-05-11
Packaged: 2018-03-30 00:18:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3916090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DigitalMeowMix/pseuds/DigitalMeowMix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All Rai wants is to get closer to the new handsome transfer student.But her lame adoptive mom is making it harder, she never lets her do anything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's the climb ( To the the second floor bedroom)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [blindmadness](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blindmadness/gifts).



> Thanks to my betas[ LeaperSonata](http://archiveofourown.org/users/LeaperSonata) and  
> [Metaphasia ](http://archiveofourown.org/users/metaphasia%20/)!
> 
>  
> 
> Inspired by the very popular Goth Rapunzel photoshops everywhere on the internet

At precisely 2 pm like clockwork, the front door slammed, and, just like every other day, the bang of the door was met with a sigh and call of "Welcome home sweetie,” from the kitchen. There was never a reply, just the sound of combat booted feet trampling up the stairs of the modest suburban home. Next came the slam of the door of the bedroom where the owner of the booted feet would disappear for hours until dinner time. The door had a sign posted that said ‘’Rai’s Room, KEEP OUT!” in a font that looked like it was dripping blood. The person wearing the boots was a tall girl wearing all black clothing studded with rivets, a large amount of eyeshadow and pale concealer hiding what must have been a very lovely face underneath all the makeup, although slightly dimpled and still round with baby fat. The girl groaned to herself with a jolt on to the seat of her vanity, a childish pink structure marred by band stickers and carvings of initials, one of the few decorative touches she could get away with without her adoptive mother breaking down in melodramatic tears about her “Little princess growing up”.” As Rai glared into her mirror, she thought of the dramatic events of the past week.

 

A week ago a new boy had transferred into her algebra class. He was handsome and tall with tan skin and dark eyes. Adhit was friendly and soft-spoken and had just a hint of an accent. And this morning he had stopped her in the hall by her locker to ask for help with his algebra. She had been wearing her headphones, which she had on every moment she was allowed and sometimes even when she wasn't to drown out the loud annoying noises of the student body. She sat in the back of US history during next period and the teacher was always at the board and almost never looked at the back row,so as long as she kept the volume down she was safe. So she didn't hear him call her name at first. When she felt a hand on her shoulder she whirled around and nearly punched him in the face on instinct. She hadn't gotten into a fight in a while but that preppy bitch Katelyn probably still had a grudge against her from junior year. When she saw who it was she stopped and tugged her headphones off quickly. “What?” she said with a little too much force.He blushed and asked his question and she was dumbstruck. He didn't seem to be at all intimidated by her goth look and less than friendly personality, and at first she thought he was joking. But when he smiled at her and pleaded for her help again she had blushed and stuttered her positive reply, given him her email address and then quickly placed her giant headphones back on her head and booked it to her next class before she threw up from excitement and nerves.  
It took until she was sitting in the back of history class for the jolt of realization to hit her. Clarissa would never allow it. She vocally groaned and slumped in her desk. She then felt like shit for the rest of the day, even as she hung out in the back of the gym with Kara and Lucy and Todd while they drank vodka disguised in water bottles and smoked during lunch. All through third and fourth period she had racked her brain about a way to get Clarissa to allow her to meet with Adhit in private. After school was impossible because she had to catch the bus, if she wasn't home on time Clarissa would panic and call the police, the school, and her cell phone incessantly, likely in that order. And if he came to her house, Clarissa would freak and give her the third degree, and there was no way she would get permission to go to his place. Clarissa would think she was running away from home or Adhit had kidnapped her. She had no other ideas for a solution to her problem throughout the bus ride home

 

Rai hated Clarissa about 70 percent of the time, for a lot of reasons. But mostly because she was the lamest human being on the planet. She was too perky, she listened to dumb old disco music in the car, she didn't allow Rai to get her ears pierced when other girls her age had had them pierced for years. She clicked her tongue and sighed when she heard Rai blaring My Chemical Romance in her room and told her to keep it down. The worst part was that Rai knew she was lucky, kids like her are a dime a dozen, and most kids taken by the state didn't end up in nice suburban homes with stable but prudish uncool control freak adoptive mothers. Rai had heard her childhood tale of woe recited from Clarissa enough that even though she barely remembered it as it had happened, her adoptive mother’s reminder of where she had come from was usually enough to quiet Rai’s most rebellious behavior due to guilt.

She had been found at 1 years old, severely malnourished and dirty in a hoarder’s house. Her biological mother had suffered from undiagnosed bipolar disorder and had let her homemaking and parenting duties slip by. CPS had taken Rai immediately. All Rai remembered about that time was having her head shaved due to the lice, and how hard she had cried until the woman at the hospital had given her a new doll to play with. A few months later Clarissa had adopted her, and in an attempt to“heal her trauma” had bought her beautiful wigs to wear like a little doll, and later had cooed over her rapidly growing hair, brushed it every day, and given her a box full of cute hair accessories. For years it went on like this, and she had been happy, because she had been rescued from that awful former life, and she had a mother who loved her. She spent years being so grateful for Clarissa. It was only until she grew older that she realized she had been taken, stolen, from her real home, from the mother that had given her beautiful french name, Raiponce, that she secretly loved but hid in public (because, duh, high school). How horrible could her mother have really been? So the house had been was dirty? Her room was dirty all the time. This had festered inside her until at the age of 13 Rai had changed her name in the eyes of everyone except Clarissa by refusing to answer to anything but Rai. Sometimes she could get Clarissa to call her Rai when she was in an indulgent mood, but otherwise she simply called her by her old name, sometimes emphasizing the vowels in public just to embarrass her. But worse in the eyes of Clarissa was the day after a big fight when she came down to the dinner table smug and silent, after spending half an hour hacking away at her long beautiful hair until it came up to just below her ears, then spiking it in the front. Clarissa had a meltdown, shrieking about how she had mutilated herself and why did she want to look like a freak or a boy instead of the beautiful young lady she was, why couldn't she accept herself, her lovely hair and her beautiful fancy name. She looked in her mirror and grimaced as she realized she would have to get up the courage to email Adhit and make a secret plan with him without scaring him off. For the millionth time that day she cursed Clarissa. Rai signed on to her chat program and took a deep breath.

RAIse Up The Darkness: Hey what's up?  
DesiADBoy: Hi :)  
RAIseUpTheDarkness: so you can come around tomorrow after 6, don't ring the doorbell because it doesn’t work and don't knock because my mom will be asleep (she sleeps a lot, it's gross)  
DesiADBoy: LOL  
RAIseUpTheDarkness: Just come to the backyard, I’m in on the second floor, second window to the left  
DesiADBoy: Weird … OK  
RAIseUpTheDarkness: See you then :)

 

“Raiponce sweetie, dinner!” Rai shut down her laptop and ran down the stairs. Clarissa was an overbearing prude, but she was a good cook.

The next day Rai was freaking out, it was 6:30, where was Adhit? Was he not coming after all? Did he think she was weird for asking him to meet here this way? Oh god, her life was over! He would tell all the kids at school and she would be an even bigger freak. She was about to start hyperventilating when a bang on her bedroom window made her jump

She looked at her phone and realized she had missed a text from Adhit. She fumbled her phone open and read it:

from: 654-3456 “Hottie”

I’m outside, Where are u? Open the window?!

 

She immediately rushed to the window and tugged it open and peered down in the backyard. There in the warm dusk of evening beside Clarissa’s garden was Adhit. He was wearing jeans and a dark blue sweater, and he had a backpack hanging from one shoulder; He was beautiful.  
“Hi,” she squeaked.  
‘’Hey,” he replied with a smile. “So how are we gonna study if I can't come in?”

Shit. 

Thinking fast, she remembered that the next door neighbors had a ladder in their shed and after a struggle of loudly whispered directions on how to find and break into the shed to retrieve the ladder, Rai gave a sigh of relief as she watched Adhit carefully climb the ladder and gracefully climb into her room with a soft thump. She had a bowl of Cheetos and some diet soda ready for her guest hidden in her closet and they sat down and started on algebra. At first it was awkward, shuffling papers and smiling nervously at each other,but soon they had settled down on the rug. and (She would try to lure him to the bed for making out later, but she didn't want to rush things.) they were making small talk while she helped him with variables and like terms, as they talked she realized he was even more amazing than she had previously imagined. They talked about everything from music (he didn't think My Chemical Romance was “emo crap” like most boys) to dumb parents ;(his parents made him go to Mosque even though he kept telling them he was an atheist,) and having weird foreign names that most people couldn't pronounce. Rai was so happy that she forgot to watch the clock, and at 8 pm when her mother knocked on the door and told her it was bedtime, she was startled and embarrassed,(8 o'clock, seriously? Like she was 8 instead of 16 and a half?). She yelled goodnight through the closed door and heard her mother sigh and turn down the hall and close her own bedroom door. Adhit just smiled and whispered he had to go home anyway. This sequence of of events went on for several blissful days. Rai could feel herself and Adhit getting closer everyday. They had a real connection, just like Clarissa’s old Cosmo magazines that she read in secret talked about.

 

But of course, because her life was suffering, it didn't last. It was a Friday evening and Adhit had just come in the window 20 minutes ago, but they were not studying. He hadn't even taken his math book out of his beat up backpack yet, they were sitting side by side with their backs against her bed talking animatedly about a rumor going around school about a bad break up between two seniors they both knew when Adhit paused and smiled. “Hey, wanna get outta here and get an ice cream?”

 

Rai’s brain screeched to a halt. CRAP, she thought as she looked at her clock. If they left now then she had a half hour to get to the Kreamy Kone a 3 blocks away on the back of Adhit's bike and back before Clarissa checked on her. It was gonna be cutting it close, but she may never have another chance. Romantic visions of sharing a soft serve filled her head.  
“Sure,” she squeaked as she rose from the floor and picked up her iPhone before heading to the window after Adhit.

 

As they walked back with their cones in hand (Rocky Road for her, Raspberry Ripple for him)they talked. The sun had set and the stars where coming out. She wondered if it was stupid to hope that he would hold her hand, (would that be moving too quickly?). They hadn't even said “I like you,” yet. She stared at him as they walked a few inches from each others’ sides. He was holding his cone at an odd angle to keep it from dripping, but there was already a drip of it by the corner of his mouth (would it embarrass him for her to point it out?) Adhit noticed her staring and she blushed at being caught.  
“Hey it’s melting,” he pointed out.“Shit!” she blurted as she looked down at her hand, Rocky Road dripping down the front of two fingers. She moved to wipe them on her jeans but Adhit stopped her,taking out a napkin from his pocket, and he reached across her to wipe her left hand off with it. His hand lingered there even after her hand was clean, he was holding her hand with his right while his cone was tilted precariously in his left. They stared at each other for a moment before she stuttered out a “Thanks”. He still didn't let go. Her heart was pounding as he smiled and leaned into her. His lips tasted like Raspberry Ripple. Neither of them noticed as the rest of his cone fell with a wet splat against the sidewalk. They walked the rest of the way to her house holding hands in silence , the tap of their feet against the ground and crickets in the woods the only sounds in the deep blue summer spring evening

 

As they approached the house Rai started to hurry her steps. She had two minutes to get up to her room and say goodbye to Adhit before Clarissa knocked at her door. As they snuck around the side of the house she finally broke her hand away from his and turned to say goodnight. Adhit's smile was wide and warm.”Night Rai, see you in Algebra,” he said as he gave her a peck on the cheek and turned to go. She watched him walk away and sighed with content. From below her window Rai heard Clarissa knocking on her bedroom door through the open window.Rai startled and whipped around to climb up the ladder in a rush . She was halfway up the ladder when she heard a loud scrape of metal and lurched backward.

 

It was 5 minutes later that Rai jolted awake laying in a moving ambulance. She gave a moan of pain as she realized her left leg was in agony as well as her hips and back, and her head was pounding so hard she felt like throwing up. It took 30 seconds before she could make her eyes focus and they teared up instantly with the effort. The first thing she saw was Clarissa's tear streaked face. She looked both terrified and furious. She immediately leaned over and whispered "Sweetie, it's OK, you fell honey, we're taking you to the hospital, just breathe and keep your eyes open”.Rai wanted to say "I'm sorry or “I'm scared” or even “this is your fault",but through gritted teeth all she could moan was, "Mommy," then she passed out again.

 

When she woke up the second time, she hurt less but her head still throbbed. She was in a hospital bed. Clarissa was sitting in a chair by the foot of the bed and looked up from her iPhone when she heard Rai shift in the starchy white bed. She sighed heavily and came to Rai’s side, taking her hand. Rai finally spoke"Claris-" she started“Your classmate told me everything." Clarissa interrupted. "I don't understand it Rai, why would you hide this from me?Why would put yourself in danger like that, that ladder was rusted, it could have broken at anytime, you could have been killed-" “CLARISSA STOP," Rai shouted, although it made her head pound harder. She continued now, spewing her thoughts out because she was sick of keeping them inside. "You never let me do anything, I feel like a prisoner, I’m not a baby but you treat me like a little kid. I really like Adhit and if I had let you meet him you would have just embarrassed me like you always do. It's like you want to ruin my life.. " She stopped a moment and looked at Clarissa, really looked at her for maybe the first time in years. Carissa was crying again, silently, like she was trying to hold it together, but her eyes were watering and she looked scared, shocked, confused? Rai couldn't really tell, maybe a mixture of all three.”Rai ... I never meant to hurt you sweetie, I love you, I just want whats best for you;I know you’re growing up and you need your freedom, but if you had just talked to me I would have understood. Talking things over is part of being an adult, which you’re on your way to becoming. But hiding things from me and sneaking around is dangerous, thank goodness this boy, Adhit. was still near the house and heard and saw you fall, since if he had not ran to the door and yelled for me to call the ambulance, no one would have known where you were and you could have lain there injured for hours-” she stopped for a moment and sobbed.She stumbled over her words as she continued, “I promised myself when I adopted you that I would protect you from being hurt again, but I pushed you away and now-” “Clarissa… mom, it’s not your fault, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry.”Rai argued. She heaved herself up from the bed and clung to Clarissa, and they both wept.

Two weeks later with a full cast on her leg, a mild concussion, and lots of pain meds, Rai heard the doorbell ring and her heart leapt. She wheeled herself away from her desk and looked in the mirror on the wall to fix her hair as she heard steps on the stairs. A moment later Adhit appeared at her doorway. He was holding flowers. “I’m so glad you’re ok Rai, you scared the hell out of me.”.Rai blushed, “Well you saved me, so thank you.”They beamed at each other and blushed until Clarissa came in a moment later with a tray of snacks and drinks. “Hey kids, here’s some study power food.Now I’ll be right downstairs if you need me, and remember the door stays open at all times!” Rai rolled her eyes but sighed. “Yes mom, we know, thank you.”  
Clarissa sighed and kissed Rai’s forehead before leaving the room, and Rai let her.

**Author's Note:**

> Rai is short for Raiponce which is French for Rapunzel. Adhit is Indonesian for Prince.
> 
> Rai looks like this http://imgur.com/SY8DCps ( Brody Dalle, leader singer of the Distillers and Spinnerette) but younger.
> 
> Adhit looks like this http://imgur.com/U4bLpOF ( Irwansyah, an Indonesian actor/singer) but younger,


End file.
